This week's viewing highlight is an examination of the socio-political context from which British comics emerged.
The Beano
Other viewing highlights include an examination of the attitude towards white women in Apartheid South Africa, the spiralling cost and limited benefits of the 2012 London-based Olympics and a report on the true scale of political and police corruption in Jamaica.
Mon 10 September - 8 - 9pm - Channel 4 - Dispatches: the Olympics Cash Machine
This edition reveals the results of six months of research into the pending true winners and losers of the hosting of the 2012 Olympics in London. Costs have already spiralled to more than £9 billion but only a privileged minority are going to seriously accrue the financial rewards of this outlay.
Mon 10 September - 8.30 - 9pm - BBC1 - Panorama - Destination UK
Paul Kenyon reports on the trials and tribulations of a new generation of African "boat people" who risk everything for a new life in Europe by crossing the Mediterranean in makeshift vessels.
Pick of the Week :rb:
Mon 10 September - 9 - 10pm - BBC4 - Comics Britannia - 1/3
This documentary series on the history of the British comic pays attention to some of the socio-political aspects such as some of the early unfortunate use of racist caricature. Also commentators including Alan Moore speak of the class aspects - the Dandy and Beano were working-class in their appeal whereas Girl and Eagle were the product of middle class aspirations and mores and values. Evidently Dan Dare, hero space pilot of the Eagle was originally going to be a chaplain!
Tue 11 September - 11.05pm - 12.10am - Channel 4 -
Johnny Vegas' Guide to... Evangelical Christianity
In this perhaps unexpected documentary, Johnny Vegas travels to Colorado in a bid to revisit his earlier Catholic faith which he abandoned at the age of 11 when he left seminary school.
Tue 11 September - 10.40pm - 12am - BBC4 - The Glow of White Women
This intriguingly titled Storyville documentary presents Yunis Vally's quirky examination of life at the height of the Apartheid era in 1960s South Africa. This is a general exploration of the history of this country at this time but looks specifically also at attitudes towards white South African women.
Wed 12 September - 9 - 10pm - BBC4 - The Protestant Revolution - 1/4
Historian Tristram Hunt examines how a breakaway form of Christianity, Protestantism, came to shape the political landscape of the modern world. This first episode looks at the consequences of Martin Luther's action in nailing his "95 Theses" to the door of a church in his native country of Germany.
Thu 13 September - 10 - 11.30pm - BBC4 - Bulgaria's Abandoned Children
This devastating film about the appalling conditions in a Bulgarian childrens home was made by the same team that produced "The Dying Rooms", an explosive 1995 documentary revealing horrific conditions in a Chinese orphanage. The documentary makers remind the viewer that Romania was told to reform its care homes before it would be approved for EU membership; for Bulgaria (granted EU membership earlier this year) there was no such stipulation. They ask why.
Friday 14 September - 7.35 - 8pm - ITV1 - Unreported World - 1/10 - Guns, Votes and Money
Evan Williams visits the slums of Jamaica where it is estimated 30 per cent of the population live. Here, the mainstream political parties fund violent gangs in return for votes and the police are said to have killed a higher proportion of the population than in any other country in the world.
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